


The Sidewinder Sleeps tonight

by karrenia_rune



Category: Cowboy Bebop, Firefly
Genre: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Warrants
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-28
Updated: 2017-07-28
Packaged: 2018-12-08 02:03:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11636643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karrenia_rune/pseuds/karrenia_rune





	The Sidewinder Sleeps tonight

Disclaimer: Firefly and the characters who appear here are the creation of Joss Whedon and their respective creators and producers.  
Cowboy Bebop belongs to its creators. Neither are mine; I am just 'borrowing' them for the purposes of the story.

"The Sidewinder Sleeps tonight" by karrenia_rune

It wasn't the strangest warrant they'd ever had to serve, and to be honest they had certainly collected their fair share of strange warrants in their time.  
Jet Black had even begun creating a spreadsheet on his private database on the scale of one to ten on how 'weird' some warrants fell into. He also seemed to have resigned himself to the strange disconnect that no matter how much or how many jobs they did he somehow always seemed to find himself in a perpetual state of penury.

If the job in question set off any alarm bells in his head or it looked as if it were about to go pear-shaped in no time he decided that come hell or high water he'd personally see to it to pound some common sense into that stubborn skull that belonged to his team; starting with Spike Spiegel; Faye Valentine could usually could be counted on to be the voice of reason.

He shrugged and before he could think better off it hit the button on the sub-space transmission and which signaled to the person who had contacted them that he had accepted the job; that done, he leaned back in his seat beside his computer terminal and placed his hands behind his head and settled in to relax, debating if he wanted a smoke.

He had enjoyed scarcely less than five minutes of this when Spike Gren, Faye arrived. "Hey:"

Faye rolled her eyes and without further ado calmly aimed a well-manicured hand and knocked the cigarette out of his hand. "No smoking on the bridge."

"It's my damn bridge and I'll damn well do as a please!" he exclaimed.

"Then," Faye smiled. "Would you mind terribly by not setting a bad example for the children in our midst."

"Spike smokes. So, do you, once in a while."

"I was talking about Gren," retorted Faye.

"She has a point," Spike remarked with a droll tone and an affected bored look on his face. He wore a fancy three-piece black suit that had once seen better days, and its color once as black as pitch had now faded to a shade bordering on cloudy ink, from wear and tear; much like the man who wore it. 

Spike did not think that they'd been recalled back to the ship to hash out crew protocol, and Faye Valentine while he often thought she was hard bitten as a prickly as a denned badger, could be a stickler for protocol. Something was up; he could smell it.

Jet Black saw which way the proverbial wind was blowing and finally conceded that he would not the ensuing argument. In the back of his mind he thought, "I've been thinking about quitting anyway, after all we've all heard what the Galactic Surgeon General has to say on the subject, causes lung cancer and all that jazz.'

He cleared his throat, and said, "Okay, Okay, In fact, I'm glad you're all here. There's this job I've decided to accept."

"What kind of job?" Spike asked.

"A search and retrieve, for an outstanding warrant on a Firefly Class cargo ship and its crew."

"Firefly class?" Spike scoffed. "Haven't been many of those around since the end of the Alliance Browncoat war."

"Much as I hate to agree with Spike on anything," Faye added,"the way I hear it, those ships were all destroyed in the war or decommissioned."

"What makes this particular ship so interesting and where was the warrant issued?" Spike asked.

Jet sighed. "It's complicated, but you all know money's been tight and it's a healthy bounty they're offering."

"It sounds as if you're trying to justify accepting on our behalf, Jet," remarked Faye.

Maybe so, maybe not. But from what I hear we're not the only ones that have gone after these guys. He grinned much wider and crossed his arms over his burly chest. "However, I think we'll be the ones to finally put a bell around the neck of this, particularly elusive cat. You guys, dig?"

"Not that I particularly care one way or another," Spike added, "but what are the charges?"

"Several, but the ones we're looking for coming in a pair, brother, and sister. The Alliance wants the girl back, the rest are less important."

Faye nodded. Spike grinned and Jet sighed. Gren sat back and listened with half an ear to the ebbs and flows of the adult conversation eddying around him, wondering if now was a good time to go check out the engines.

Aboard the Serenity River Tam perched atop several stacked crates latched to the floor of the cargo bay. Of late it had become increasingly difficult to determine a clear-cut division between her lucid dreaming and her lucid waking moments.  
Whatever it was that the Alliance had done to her went beyond more than the physical. "She sang, "Even in an evening gown, with the sleeves rolled down. The message is clear; no you can't catch me." 

"Hey, kid, why dontcha come down from there," a loud, baritone voice called up to her. "Even if ya dontcha think it's dangerous the rest of us might become a tad bit concerned if you catch yourself of something else equally flammable and set the place on fire."

River closed her eyes thinking if she could recall more than snatches of an old song that had she been less in the here and there and more concerned with the historical provenance of such things, might have known where it came from. As it was, she instead saw in the inward-looking landscape of her mind's eye at Jayne's mention of the word 'fire.' 

She saw the orange, red flames of a bonfire. First, there was the bonfire on the crew had sat around one evening swapping stories, songs, along with Shepherd Book, and the flames had been warm, welcoming and the thoughts in her head, and swirling behind her eyes were, for once went silent. 

Sooner than she might have wished those calm, warm flames became the blazing, hungry flames of a building burning and the shadows leaping and capering crazily against the walls.

Then the flames became those from an Alliance hand-weapon. In only the last weapon she could the faces of those she had come to think of her, her brother, and the crew of the Serenity.  
In only the last she could not determine the identities of those who fought or those who fell in the midst of a shoot-out. He reverie was momentarily interrupted by the sound of her brother, Simon Tam's voice. 

"Jayne, have you found River?"

"Yeah, Doc."

""River, it's Simon, please do as Jayne asks and come down from there." It's time for your injections."

"No more injections," River murmurred. "Don't like injections."

"No one really does, but it'll be just one tiny quick prick and then it'll be over."

"Promise?" she asked.

"I Promise," Simon Tam replied.

As he was bending over the crates going over the cargo manifests; Jayne muttered, "Famous last words, Doc."

***  
"So, any idea where we start looking?" Spike asked as he mulled over the image of their targets he had asked the Bebop's onboard computer to make a hard-copy of it.

He'd studied it in detail and for some reason, he could not shake it, he felt as if the girl's dark eyes were pools of water that could swallow you up within them if one allowed oneself to get too close; and not in a good way. It was an irrational and eerie and one he did not care to carry too far.

"They're last known planet-fall was near Eden."

"Eden, huh? that's ways from here. How do we they'll still be there?"

"We don't," but come on. We' wont' get anywhere by waiting around here."  
**  
Encounter

"Hello, folks, nice evening," Jet said.

"Hello, yourself," Mal replied.

"Might we have a word with you folks?" Jet Black. He hadn't really planned on how to approach them, but he figured he would start with the pleasantries. There was no reason that this had to get ugly right from the get-go.  
Malcolm Reynolds raised his tankard of ale and drank off a healthy swallow.

"You might, depends on what you've got to say."

At his side Zoe Washburn tensed. Thus far these folks had not done anything openly hostile or provoking, but there was really no sense in any taking any chances.

Spike cast a searching eye around those gathered around the table and subtle ground the toe of his boot into Jet boot in-step when he recognized the girl from the picture.

"Look, we don't want any trouble. The name's Jet Black and these are ah, my associates. We're here for the girl and her brother. We have an outstanding warrant to return them both to Alliance custody."  
'"Do you now?" Mal drawled.

"Gotta admit," Wash muttered, "that's the politest warrant officer I've ever met."

"Met many of those, lover of mine," Zoe purred leaning over and pulling his curly dish-water blond head into a tight embrace. 

"Can't really recall, now that you mention it," he whispered.

"Let's see this warrant," Zoe demanded.

"I, ah, don't have it on me," Jet Black admitted. "We just kept an electronic copy of it on our ship's computer."

"Then no deal," Malcolm replied. 

"Now, now, let's be reasonable," Jet tried. 

Zoe got up from the table and placed a hand on the big man's shoulder. "You heard the Captain. Now are you going to leave, or do I have to 'escort' you folks out?"

"We'll go. But we'll be back and by then we'll be expecting a little bit better answer."

Interlude

"We're not about to hand River over to them!" Simon exclaimed.

"Not a bit of it, Doc," soothed Kaylee.  
"No we're not, so just calm yourself down," Zoe added. "Besides we don't know for certain whether or not the warrant for your arrest is even genuine. They don't strike me as legitimate bounty hunters."

At her side, Hoban "Wash" Washburn nodded in agreement. "I ran a computer check on their ship and crew and it seems the Alliance big-shots couldn't even be bothered to send their 'very best".  
"What do you mean by that?" Mal asked.

"I mean, they've decided to outsource," Wash replied.

"How far out-sourced are we talking about?" Zoe asked.

"I mean, that were our positions reversed we might as well serve a few warrants of our own. Wash's grin was almost but not quite a match for Malcolm Reynold's.

"I guess it's time we gave our answer to Mister Black, then."

****  
fight scene  
Outside the tavern, the moon floated in the star-sprinkled sky like an milky eye.

He felt a shiver run up and down his spine, and before he knew it, River landed on his back like a cat. "No, you can't catch me."  
"Huh, tell me about, kid."

Jayne had been in plenty of fights, probably more than anyone with a lick of sense in his skull should have been and lived to tell about it. In any case, having watched River, much like the body of water she that was her namesake; she flowed in around those who had boarded Serenity as she was made of water and air, nigh untouchable.

He'd seen this once before and it never ceased to amaze him. The tall lanky man who was currently receiving the brunt of blows from her tiny but still dangerous fists had his head snap back at one of these blows and dance back several steps to give himself breathing room.

Mal was yelling to be heard over the sound of gun-fire, but half the time Jayne found himself busy exchanging fire with a red-headed girl in a frayed leather jack.  
In under circumstances, Jayne might even have considered making a play for her affections. 

Zoe and Wash fought back to back against the tall lanky man in the ragged black suit. He leaped around like a two-legged cat seemingly unheeding of such mundane things like gravity, firing off shots from a laser-pistol that smoked something fierce.

It was a good thing that the Doc and Kaylee had chosen to remain aboard the Serenity.

"Damn! Damn! Damn! This was not how things were supposed to go!" Jet swore.

"How else did you think this was going to play out!" Zoe demanded.

"If you had just handed the girl over.." pretty as you please," Spike replied.

"This is stupid," Faye muttered. "All we're doing is wasting perfectly good ammunition. Besides, I don't particularly care for doing the Alliance's dirty work for them."

"Faye's right," Spike nodded, leaping down from the wall of the porch of the rooming house near the tavern.

"Well now, that's a first. You two agreeing." Jet muttered under his breath when the girl in question stepped up in front of him and clutched his hand with a clammy strong grip. "Like a lightning strike in a shorted out mind. Let the poor girl be."

"They're not wrong," Zoe stated.

"Well, where does that leave us?" Jet Black asked.

Malcolm placed his hands down on the surface of the cracked and pitted table in the tavern and stared down the big man. "The answer is no. We're not turning either of the Tams over to you."

"Well, Damn!" Jet exclaimed.

"If it's any consolation, this was never personal."

"Oh, sure," Malcolm drawled. "It never personal, until it becomes 'personal, if you catch my drift."

"It was just about the money. I don't even care what the kid did; her brother was an accessory, and you guys are harboring a fugitive that the Alliance wants to be returned to their custody pretty badly," Spike interjected.  
"You think we don't know that!" Zoe exclaimed.

"So River stays with us, and we you guys agree to leave us alone," Malcolm Reynolds determined with a wry grin.

"I should never have accepted to serve the warrant," Black replied. "Okay, Okay, but let's just keep this between us. Agreed?"

"Agreed," Malcolm replied. 

"This is why we can't have nice things," Faye Valentine muttered.


End file.
